@Sunfish...
More map detail for you....... I didn't fully answer your questions…
The map is titled "Mevelo B56/2 New Britain" and my full size white copy measures 20" Wide and 22" High. Now, I can see on my colour copy that the fold on the lower margin was made 1" from the edge and if that one inch regime was followed all around the map the "edge folded size would be 18" Wide by 20" High. I can see from by colour copy that the "important letters and numbers" of the pencilled writing would be totally folded under when this was done. The borders of the map on the colour copy are tinted yellow and in parts I can see that when the tape was removed that some of the tint came away from the paper or either the tape pulled off the top of the map paper in small areas.
The colour copy shows that the map was obviously folded vertically in the middle so that would then make the map folded size 9" wide folded "once" Folded then across the height dimension, would make the second fold 10" high. I am therefore going to say if the map was folded to fit an Australian WWII Mapcase that it ended up folded at a size of 9" by 10".
I will leave it to you to find out if that would fit a WWII Mapcase.
How Don came to have it is that he had had the story written up in the "West Australian" newspaper after he had done a little research with a historian from the RAAF, retired Wing Commander James de Bomford. After the newspaper article had appeared, some time later, he was in the City of Perth on a street there and bumped into Len Willoughby who had been the 11th Battalion "D" Company Clerk and Len told Don he had seen the article in the West Australian and had a map from that time when they had been in New Britain, he said, “I am going into hospital shortly but before I do, I will send you the map." Don was also due for a shop visit and when he came out the map was waiting for him, delivered by Post. He looked at it, saw it was from New Britain, folded it back up and put it away with his papers. A Year or so later when I told him I was being sent to Perth, he had nothing to show me of where they had been but the map.
He took the map to a copy-printers where the girl there told him that the machine they had was big enough to print the whole map if he took the tape off. He tried doing it there and then, but decided to take it back home and do it leisurely as the map tended to tear. That's when he discovered the writing on the bottom border when he removed what he called, "old masking tape".
The writing is dated "24/5/45" and at that time the whole Battalion was arranged round TOL Plantation and a group of "D" Company men were waiting for a barge to take them up to the UNAMITKI River where some Japanese Troops had been seen. An Officer approached the group and addressed then with detail of a reply "from the Americans" concerning the find of an engine in the woods..... Someone who had the map must then have written down this detail from a "Reference" made by the Officer to 600 H/P S3H/1 C/N1055 because the letters "ref.” appear just before the "600H/P ...etc", this reference plus other mentions of SITREPS mentioning Patrol "A1" altogether show that the message coming back from "the Americans" is about the find of the engine in the jungle. We do not know who wrote the script but it had to be someone from "D" Company. Why the map would be with them then is another question because maps were controlled and the UNAMITKI is off this particular map as it is further to the East inside JAMMER BAY.
So, that was May in 1945. Active patrolling by the 11th Battalion continued until the Japanese capitulation and until the Battalion was shifted to RABAUL. So, the map continued to be used by the 11th Battalion in the "Mevelo" area. They then did garrison duty in Rabaul, mainly supervision of Japanese troops collecting war machinery and arms. When they were finally told they were going back to Australia, their C.O. told them to burn everything they didn't want and that is when the Company Clerk spotted the map case on the pile of discarded equipment and decided to hook the map as a keepsake.
The Patrol definitely bumped into an engine. W.O Nurse's description of the "ugly rivets" around the nose cowl aperture eliminates the cowl as being from a B-17 as the B-17 had a NACA Cowl with a reverse curve of the metal made by a rubber die press and countersunk head rivets allowing a smooth air entry into the cowling. The Electra had a "rolled edge" strip curved around the opening and riveted on using dome head rivets, with more dome head rivets at the cowl join areas giving a rather "Ugly" appearance as described and plain to see in photos. Lt. Backhouse described seeing the "body" of the plane, in his word.
So it appears that it is "all" there…
Last edited by David Billings; 3rd Jun 2018 at 01:38.